Digging for dinosaurs!
Forget about big thinking and big
writing, this week was rather about big digging! On Thursday we dived into our
new IPC topic ‘Footprints
from the Past’ by visiting Kopaszi Gát to excavate a dinosaur site.
The children arrived at school in the
morning, dressed fantastically as intrepid explorers. Most of them did not know
what was going to happen next and what we were going to look for! We mixed the
three Year 3 classes into the four merit point colour teams, to give them the
opportunity to be with other children and to work together in
teams. After the initial excitement of finding the first dinosaur
specimens the digging became more laboured with most starting to tire in the
heat and dust. It was an authentic experience, as it was not easy to find the
fossils – the children had to persevere and keep digging. We had to dig hard
and work cooperatively to get the dinosaur fossils out of the ground.
Hopefully Thursday’s experience has
helped the children feel excited and enthusiastic about our new IPC topic,
which will replace our Communities topic. I know the children cannot wait to
begin the dusty excavation work of revealing the dinosaurs we found from the
plaster blocks. We will have an opportunity to start this next week.
In Literacy we continued with
"Settings". We explored unusual scenes and the children were
enthusiastic in describing using their senses. In
Literacy we completed our final piece of Settings work. All of the children
have used interesting adjectives to give their writing extra interest and
effect. It really has been a pleasure to read their descriptions of places and,
in some cases, characters. Next week we will begin our unit on report writing,
which will connect nicely with our Dinosaur
topic.
Earlier
in the week, in Literacy the children looked at using adjectives in their
writing and completed their last piece of writing about settings. Next week we
will be looking at report writing, which will connect nicely with our Dinosaur
topic.
Remember “Bug Club”
as an additional reading activity that can be done at home. http://www.pearsonbugclub.com/
In Maths, we have moved onto multiplication and division and the connection between the two. The MyMaths homework this week is aimed at practising times tables. MyMaths is a great resource to use at home to practise maths skills (even when there is no homework set on the site – there is a wealth of activities and games). You can help out at home by helping your child to learn their times tables. Children should first know their 2, 5 & 10 times tables, before moving on to the 3 & 4 times tables. Please ask if you are not sure.
Other
Parent meetings
Please remember that next week there are parent-teacher
meetings scheduled for Tuesday and Thursday. This is a great opportunity to
meet and discuss how your child has settled into Year Three and their progress
so far this year. If you haven’t managed to make an appointment yet and would
like to do so, please see us to arrange a time.
International Day
International Day is on Monday 14th October. This is an exciting opportunity to celebrate
the nationalities and cultures within our school. Please see the school
newsletter for more details. If you would like to read a story from your
country or share something from your culture with the children - then please
see me, so we can arrange a time. Thank you.
Have a great weekend.
Glenda Hughes & Richard Smith
Glenda Hughes & Richard Smith
